The Cinematic Life Achievement Triple Crown

This morning, the Kennedy Center announced that it would be honoring George Clooney with its lifetime achievement award, alongside singers Amy Grant & Gladys Knight, composer Tania Leon, & the rock band U2.  Clooney's victory marks him as the latest person to win what I have dubbed on this blog "the Cinematic Life Achievement Triple Crown."  This includes film personalities who have won the Kennedy Center Honors, the AFI Life Achievement Award, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which is from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

While this has been a long-time list we used to update almost every year on the blog, the last few years have disrupted everything, including this award.  For starters, the last time we did a profile here, Dame Julie Andrews had just won the AFI Life Achievement Award.  While this was in 2019, Andrews is the only person to win this award in the past couple of years, because the ceremony kept being delayed due to Covid.  The Kennedy Center Honors didn't skip a year due to Covid, but they did have a delay as a result of it, and while the Cecil B. DeMille Award skipped a year (last year), it wasn't due to Covid, but instead because of the decision by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to not hold their ceremony due to scandal.

It's not entirely clear what the future of the Golden Globes are, and if as a result we are now in the throes of only previous DeMille winners (like Clooney) getting this honor, but I thought it would still be fun to mark Clooney's victory by taking a look at where we stand in terms of living people who have won the Life Achievement Triple Crown, as well as which people are inching their way up the ladder to victory.

Living Triple Crown Winners: George Clooney is just one of a number of living Lifetime Achievement Award Winners.  As you'll see, generally if you're going to start this journey, it's likely you're going to finish it if you live long enough, since film only has so many legends & these honors tend to be very group think (i.e. if you win one, other people will want you to join their club).  The other twelve living victors of all three are Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Robert de Niro, Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Warren Beatty, Morgan Freeman, Shirley MacLaine, & Tom Hanks.

Minus DeMille: Julie Andrews was an early victor for the Kennedy Center Honors, which are less shy about giving trophies to non-Americans than the AFI (it's in the name), and also likely due to Andrews' work on stage & television, as the Kennedy Center Honors go with people who are in the performing arts, not focused solely on film (like the other two trophies).  That said, one wonders if she could pull off the DeMille at some point considering her solid history with the Globes (14 nods, 5 wins).  Other figures that have won both the Kennedy Center Honor and the AFI include men who are behind-the-scenes (who therefore might not be as inclined for a trophy at the star-loving Globes as even Spielberg & Scorsese had to wait a while to win here): John Williams, Mel Brooks, and George Lucas.  Perhaps the most likely person after Andrews could be Steve Martin, who'd give a brilliant speech & has six Globe nominations but no trophies yet.  If he's going to win the AFI with his comparatively thin filmography (certainly compared to some of the people we listed as current Triple Crown Winners above), you'd think the Globes would be fine going for him

Minus Kennedy: The Kennedy Center Honors can usually pick 1-2 film figures, though it seems slightly less-inclined to "popular" movie stars than DeMille or AFI, and more likely to make them wait a bit for the trophy.  This might be why this is the missing leg for the likes of Harrison Ford, who might also just be over the idea of going to more awards shows (this could also explain why he hasn't gotten an Honorary Oscar yet).  Denzel Washington seems almost certain to take the Kennedy Center Honor at some point, though I wonder if the ship might have sailed for Michael Douglas, who has both of the other awards but is routinely beaten for the Kennedy Center.  His father won it, but that was years ago and the younger Douglas's fame has started to deplete in recent years with neither he nor his wife making films (focusing more on television).  The only name I'm confident won't show up here?  Jane Fonda.  Her sharp criticism of the Vietnam War is decades old, but that doesn't mean that DC is ready to honor Hanoi Jane.

Minus AFI: There are now just two living people who have won the Kennedy Center & the DeMille but not taken the AFI.  This is always the shortest list, which is weird because the AFI feels like it's the hardest to come by (since not as many people win the Kennedy Center & the DeMille has been around longer).  The first of these two is beyond a mystery to me.  How Robert Redford didn't take this award in the past 15 years considering his work as a multi-hyphenate movie star/filmmaker, as well as the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, is so odd.  The mystery of how Redford has avoided this honor is one of those random "awards season enigmas" I ponder from time-to-time.  The only other person who is in this same camp is Oprah Winfrey.  Winfrey's win at the DeMille's happened before the launch of the Carol Burnett Award (focused more on TV than film) and one wonders if she would have won the DeMille had the Burnett Award already existed, since Winfrey's biggest contributions have been in television.  I suspect, even with her moving into film at a more aggressive clip with movies like A Wrinkle in Time and Selma in recent years that Winfrey won't be able to take the AFI at any point in the future with such a thin cinematic resume.

Kennedy Only: We now move to people who have only won one leg of the awards, and it's a good reminder that the Kennedy Center Honors pick recipients based on not just film (like the Globes & AFI), but all of their contributions to the performing arts.  This means that there are figures like Cher, Rita Moreno, Angela Lansbury, Lily Tomlin, James Earl Jones, Dick van Dyke, and Bette Midler who definitely have a cinematic background and could conceivably win one of the other two awards, but are more associated with TV, music, and/or the stage & simply don't have the credentials to win the AFI or the DeMille.  Really there's just two people who have the Kennedy whom one would indisputably associate with the movies: Joanne Woodward & Sally Field.  Woodward won the same year as her famed husband Paul Newman (who like his Butch Cassidy costar won the Kennedy & DeMille but never picked up the AFI), but her ill health likely precludes her from taking any other trophies (she suffers from Alzheimer's Disease).  Field, on the other hand, seems a probable contender in the future for the AFI or DeMille, as she's still very active in cinema and has enough popular hits to make it for either award, though her age means they should get a move on if they don't want to risk waiting too long.

DeMille Only: Looking at the DeMille Award winners who never caught on with the other two bodies, I'm seeing names that could definitely translate to the Kennedy or AFI, but I wonder how many actually will.  Gene Hackman has completely retired from cinema and public life, and as a result it's doubtful that they ever go for him again.  Woody Allen's filmography certainly warrants at least the AFI, but his personal problems guarantee he'll never win an award like this again.  Sophia Loren is a living legend, but her most important film work is in a different language, and that hurts her chances, particularly with the AFI.  The best bets to get another of the trophies would be Anthony Hopkins, Jeff Bridges, and Jodie Foster, all of whom work still in mainstream projects and have rounded-enough filmographies for the other awards.  Hopkins won his DeMille 16 years ago, so it's odd he hasn't taken the other prizes yet as they don't usually make you wait so long, but Foster & Bridges both won their DeMille's in the past ten years and could easily grab the next leg of their Crown soon.

AFI Only: Since the AFI is the hardest award of these to win, only one woman is on the list of actors who have taken the trophy but nothing else: Diane Keaton.  She gave the speech at the Globes for her friend Woody Allen when he won the DeMille (but in typical Woody fashion refused to accept it)-perhaps they assume she's already won as a result?  She at least deserves to take the Kennedy Center Honor at some point-the quintessential American star of Annie Hall and Reds feels right at home for such an honor (and honestly, has done more for cinema than George Clooney, who might be getting up there to the point of life achievement awards, but honestly feels too young to have finished this entire list).

Not Yet Started: Of course there are always going to be people starting their journey for the Cinematic Life Achievement Triple Crown Award.  Generally you start to get this going with your first win at a young age, so don't be surprised if you see actors in their fifties you might consider too young start taking these at an aggressive clip.  While not all of these people will make it to even one of these awards, here's a sampling of some of the living film legends who could be contenders for future honors (in case these bodies need any ideas) as well as their ages: Brad Pitt (58), Goldie Hawn (76), Robert Duvall (91), Spike Lee (65), Michael Caine (89), Will Smith (53), Ron Howard (68), Eva Marie Saint (98), Glenn Close (75), Jessica Lange (73), Samuel L. Jackson (73), Tom Cruise (60), Julie Christie (82), Maggie Smith (87), Faye Dunaway (81), Ian McKellen (83), Judi Dench (87), Ellen Burstyn (89), Helen Mirren (76), Catherine Deneuve (78), Angela Bassett (63), Sandra Bullock (57), Sissy Spacek (72), Vanessa Redgrave (85), Kathy Bates (74), Norman Jewison (96), Ridley Scott (84), Liza Minnelli (76), Sylvester Stallone (76), Annette Bening (64), James Cameron (67), Daniel Day-Lewis (65), Whoopi Goldberg (66), Holly Hunter (64), Kim Novak (89), Emma Thompson (63), Michelle Pfeiffer (64), Viola Davis (56), Cate Blanchett (53), Matt Damon (51), Sean Penn (61), Matthew McConaughey (52), & Julia Roberts (54).